


Square Hammer LLC

by The_Snipes22



Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Demons, Gen, Papa III is the head of a business and also frontman of Ghost, Sister Imperator shows up sometime, Some ghouls die but not really, There's some demonic bloodlines in here somewhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-07 00:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15897552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Snipes22/pseuds/The_Snipes22
Summary: Victoria,I hope this letter finds you well. I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’ve been having trouble finding employment. I just so happen to have an opening at a branch of Ghost B.C., Square Hammer LLC. You only have to do three things; 1. Pass an Interview, 2. Kill the current head of the branch and take their place, and 3. Wear Business attire, you may be killing someone, but you are working for me now, and I don’t tolerate sloppy behavior.From what I’ve heard, your spunk is exactly what we are looking for in this company. Someone will come by to pick you up at 8AM tomorrow.I look forward to working with you,Papa Emeritus III





	1. The Interview

Victoria had been searching for a job for a while now. After getting fired from her last one for “threatening the lives of coworkers”, “almost stabbing John”, and “knocking out John with a punch to the face” it had been hard to find another one. In interviews since then, whenever the question of previous employment came up, Victoria had to explain why she was fired from her previous office job. The interviewers would try to end the interview as quickly as possible and say “We’ll call you back”. They never did.

This never was an anger management issue, Victoria had gone to therapy for that, and it still didn’t go away. She always joked that she had demon blood coursing through her, and when she got irritated, her ‘demonic side’ showed its face.

With months and months of no callbacks, Victoria was surprised when she received a scroll, an honest to god scroll on parchment, even tied with a red bow. The text still looked like it was printed on an inkjet printer, but it got the point across. It appeared yesterday morning in a bright flash of light and a whiff of sulfur. Even though she had ceramic tile countertops a circle was permanently burned into the counter along with various alchemical symbols.

The letter read:

It was signed with a flourish.

The signature seemed real, as Victoria had seen it everywhere. On the internet with signed photos, people’s posts online analyzing it to see if they should buy stock in Ghost B.C, and she saw it every day on the posters on her walls.

When Victoria finished reading the letter, she didn’t believe that it was a legitimate offer.

Another flash of bright light and whiff of brimstone brought her answer.

She decided to respond.

Victoria rolled up the scroll and placed it in the circle, another bright flash of light, and it was gone. With shaking hands, she poured herself a bowl of cereal and made herself some tea. She ate it while staring at the circle on her countertop. Another message arrived when she was finishing up her meal.

A few seconds later, there was another flash.

Victoria sighed. She could almost see Papa Emeritus’ face curl into a smirk.

_Damn that man, he always has some ulterior motive._

__

Victoria went about the rest of her day barely aware of what was going on. She was nervous, could barely eat anything, and barely got enough sleep that night.

* * *

Victoria woke up to the sound of a talk radio show.

“…think about the recent changes to the lineup of Ghost’s stage ghouls?”

“I don’t know John, I think we are in for a surprise, cause new ghouls mean big changes, maybe we’ll get a new album from the stage side of Papa III. I hope that’s the case”

Victoria groaned and rolled out of bed.

“Time to get ready for that interview! Let’s go!” she said to herself as she turned off the radio alarm.

Victoria really didn’t want to think about the second item on her list. _One thing at a time._ She thought.

She walked into the kitchen to find another note waiting for her. It only said two words.

Victoria folded up the note and put in her purse, next to her pocket knife. It was that pocket knife that she had almost stabbed John with.

 _He deserved it, that sexist bastard. He’s lucky I only got to punch him and break his nose._ Victoria smiled as she remembered the satisfying crunching noise his nose made as she punched him.

“Oh shoot, it's 7:59!” She cursed at herself for getting caught up in memories and rushed out the door.

Victoria walked outside and was surprised to see a ghoul with their arms crossed leaning against a limousine at the end of her driveway. The ghoul turned their head towards Victoria with a slight unnatural tilt. Shaking off her chills, Victoria marched down her driveway and approached the ghoul.

She inclined her head in greeting, as she remembered that most ghouls didn’t like shaking hands the first time they meet someone, “Hello! I don’t believe I’ve met you before! I’m…”

“…Victoria,” the ghoul interrupted. Their voice was surprisingly deep and seemed to rumble with the energy of a dying star.

“Sol. I’m escorting you today.”

As Sol turned to open the door for Victoria, she noticed a slight gold sheen on their mask.

“Uhhh, Sol, why is your mask different from other one’s I’ve seen?”

Sol scoffed in amusement, “That’s because the only masks you’ve seen haven’t been functional, they were only for show. This one is so I can breathe.”

With that, he shut the door to the limousine. Victoria breathed a sigh of relief. _One step down, at least three more to go._

Sol opened the door and Victoria stepped out onto the sidewalk.

“Welcome to the premises of Square Hammer LLC. Follow me.” Sol shut the limousine door behind her and started walking towards a skyscraper with a sign that read,

                                                

The lobby was extravagant to say the least. A large golden statue of Papa III sitting on a throne with a fountain at his feet dominated the space. Chains of lightbulbs were strung from the statue’s shoulders to various points of the room to create the effect that he was the center of everything.

 _This looks absolutely ridiculous. I knew that he was ostentatious, but this is just so over the top._ Victoria rolled her eyes.

Sol led her over to an elevator and waited. When the elevator arrived, they both walked into it and Sol took out a keycard and swiped it across the sensor below the buttons. The door closed, and they stepped back to hold on to the railings.

“You might want to hold on to something,” They warned. Victoria looked at them quizzically. “This elevator goes pretty fast.”

They didn’t seem like they were joking, so Victoria followed their advice. A Muzak cover of Year Zero started playing over the elevator speakers. The elevator didn’t seem like it was moving, then suddenly, Victoria’s stomach dropped. It felt like the huge drops on roller coasters at Magic Mountain.

She looked up at the floor indicator, and watched as it went further and further into negative numbers. -662…-663… The elevator started to slow down a little bit. -664… _I swear to the higher powers if this place is on floor -666 I’m going to slap Papa 3 when I see him again._ Victoria thought as the elevator slowed more. -665…The elevator was almost stopped now. -666…-667… The elevator dinged, and the doors opened.

“Floor Negative Six-hundred and Sixty-Seven,” Sol announced. “This is your stop, and where I leave you. Good day Victoria, Good luck, and remember,” Sol cocked their head, their eyes seemed to shine a bit brighter, and Victoria got the feeling that they could snap her neck without a second thought, “Don’t Forget.”

Victoria walked out of the elevator and into the smaller lobby. It seemed normal enough, for being over nine-thousand feet below the surface. Fluorescent lighting lined the acoustic ceiling tiles and made the entire lobby seem dreary.

 _For all the gold in the main lobby, would it kill him to make this a bit easier on the eyes?_ Victoria thought as she walked up to the secretary’s desk. She took a deep breath.

“Excuse me? I’m Victoria, and I got a letter saying that I had a job interview today?”

The secretary looked up from her computer.

“Ah yes, I remember, go right ahead to the doors on the right. No need to knock, He knows you’re coming.” She said in a chipper voice and a bright smile.

“Thank you very much!” Victoria nodded and started to walk towards the doors. She heard a deep growl from the secretary. Victoria waved behind her, slightly annoyed, and said “Yes, Yes, I know, ‘Don’t Forget’ blah blah blah. I have the note in my purse next to my pocketknife, I won’t forget.”

Victoria, now annoyed with how much the ghouls were reminding her of her task, marched toward the large double doors to the right of the secretary’s desk. She took a deep breath to steady her emotions and opened the doors. They were heavier than she expected, and she struggled to open them. This got her more annoyed. The doors finally opened. Victoria looked at her shaking hands and hoped the shaking wouldn’t transfer to her voice.

She shut the doors behind her and had to wait a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness in the room. The room was large and tall. The floor was covered in a plush crimson carpet, the walls had black and red wallpaper. The only light sources were a dimly lit chandelier hung high above and a bright desk lamp. One wall of the room was entirely floor to ceiling windows and the view was magnificent. The room looked out onto a gigantic underground cavern. The cavern was lit from the lights of boardwalk pathways that snaked through the stalagmites and columns. The pathways all wound around a large underground lake. The lake was lit up from below by floodlights installed under the water. As steam curled from the top of the placid surface, several dark figures darted in and out of the plumes and dived into the lake.

Victoria tried to turn her attention away from the beautiful view, but she hadn’t realized she had walked up to the wall of windows and pressed a hand to the glass. She continued to stare openmouthed at the view, awe struck by the beauty that existed underneath this skyscraper. Victoria turned to the figure in the high-backed chair sitting at the desk.

“Limestone caves? With some volcanism if I see it correctly.” Victoria asked, motioning with her head towards the cave and lake.

“Very observant, Victoria. Good job.” The voice that answered her was pierced by their slow clapping. The voice sounded smooth, like pouring water into your hand. However, it feels that unlike water, this voice wouldn’t stick to anything, almost like mercury flowing out of a broken thermometer.

Victoria rolled her eyes at the patronization. “Thank you, and you are?” She said, none too politely.

“Yes, a pleasure to introduce myself, I am Mercury. A little lame I know,” he said with a chuckle, “but to be perfectly honest, Mercury was the better of the two silver elements. I think it fit my personality a bit better than ‘Luna’ don’t you think?”

“I don’t know enough about your personality to make that judgement.”

Mercury laughed again, his peals of harsh laughter echoing throughout the spacious room, “You’ll soon know why I’m called Mercury, please, sit down.” Mercury motioned to a small chair in front of his desk. It was no better than a folding chair you could buy at Walmart. The price sticker was even still attached to it.

 _They don’t even respect me here to give me a proper chair?! Ugh. But, I shouldn’t lose control, that caused the last interviews to go awry_. Victoria squared her jaw and walked deliberately and with controlled movements over to the folding chair.

Before Mercury got the chance to ask her any questions, Victoria interjected “You’re the one in charge here? I assume that as you’ve got the cushy office and nice view.”

Mercury leaned forward, as if to see Victoria and scrutinize her, and his mask was engulfed by the light of his desk lamp. His mask didn’t seem solid. It kept the overall shape of a ghoul mask, but it seemed to swirl and mix and unmix with itself. The longer she stared at it, the more mesmerizing it became. Mercury seemed to be saying something, but it didn’t register with her brain. Victoria blinked to clear and focus her mind off of the swirling of the mask.

“Could you please repeat that? I couldn’t quite understand what you said.”

Mercury’s dull red eyes seemed to sparkle with malice. “I said, yes, I am the head of Square Hammer LLC, or the grand poobah, or whatever you want to call it. Now I believe this your interview, and _I’m_ the interviewer. Not the other way around.” Not breaking eye contact, he reached to a stack of papers next to him and grabbed the top one. He cocked his head and finally broke eye contact to look at the paper in his hand.

“So, it seems that you have somewhat of an anger issue, as you were fired from your last job, and have never gotten any second interviews because of them.”

 _Going right to the elephant in the room eh? Son of a Bitch._ Victoria thought. She opened her mouth to reply but was cut off.

“That wasn’t a question,” Mercury interjected as he held up a finger to shush her, still looking at the paper, “please let me finish asking a question _before_ you respond.”

Victoria shut her mouth and clenched her teeth to avoid saying anything that would kill her chances at succeeding this interview. Mercury’s mask, like all other ghoul masks, covered his mouth, but Victoria could swear she saw one swirl form a smirk over where his mouth would be. It was gone before she could confirm her suspicions.

 _Yet another positive annoyance point on the scale._ Victoria exhaled forcefully to calm her annoyance a little bit. She moved her hand to figit with her pocketknife. It usually calmed her to do something with her hands. Her right hand brushed the note that Papa III left on her counter that morning.

 _How could I have forgotten about that. I really don’t want to do that. The only other time that I’ve gotten close to stabbing someone was John. Thankfully I just ended up punching him._ Her right hand found her pocketknife. She started rubbing the already well-worn thumb groove to calm down.

Still looking at the paper, Mercury finally asked a question “Can you elaborate on this problem?”

“Which problem?”

Mercury let out an exasperated sigh, “The anger problem, it says here you threatened to stab a coworker, and you threatened the lives of your coworkers.”

“Yes, I won’t lie, my anger gets out of hand, but I’m working on controlling it. It used to be a lot worse but…”

Mercury interrupted again, “Good, good to see you are working on it.” He set the paper down and looked at Victoria. A heavy silence hung in the air, mercury seemed to be waiting for something.

He waited for what felt like an hour. Victoria sat uncomfortably in the folding chair and shuffled her feet every once in a while, barely making eye contact with Mercury. She felt that if she looked into his eyes for more than a few milliseconds, he would pick something else out of her tough shell she used whenever people pushed her down.

“I think we are done here.” Mercury finally broke the silence.

“What?” Victoria was confused.

“Can you not hear? I said, I think we are done here. I don’t think you are up for the job.” Mercury stood up, he was almost seven feet tall and cut an imposing lithe figure. He skulked around to the front of his desk and faced Victoria.

“You can leave now.” He pointed to the doors she came in.

Victoria stood up, not realizing she had grabbed her knife she was fidgeting with. “Excuse me? And _why_ exactly do you think I’m not up for this job?” Her words gradually became louder.

Mercury’s eyes glinted again and he leaned down so his mask was inches from Victoria’s face. “Because of who I am, have you figured out why I’m Mercury?” He didn’t give Victoria a chance to answer. “Because I can find any crack you have, no matter what armor you put up, no matter what you do or say to guard against it. I can figure it out.”

The swirls in his mask became more violent and chaotic, “And I so I know it when I say, You. Aren’t. Fit. For. This. Job.” With every word, he emphasized it with a jab in Victoria’s chest with his finger. Right before the word job, he quickly looked at something behind her. On the word job, he shoved her backwards over the folding chair.

Victoria was slightly in shock, no person had ever tried to shove her like that. She wasn’t aware of what happened next. Her body acted on its own accord as she switched open her knife and lunged at Mercury.

Mercury stood there laughing, even as Victoria plunged the knife into his stomach and stabbed his throat as hard as she could.

Victoria became aware of her surroundings again as black ichor ran down her fingers. She looked at where mercury was standing. He had vanished into black dust. His mask thunked onto his desk.

Victoria coughed, covered her face, and tried not to breathe in what was the ghoul who was interviewing her.

Then realization hit, _Oh my god, I just killed a ghoul, that’s the biggest taboo that outsiders know of of this company. Papa Emeritus is going to kill me._

Victoria stepped back, making sure to avoid the folding chair. She started coughing out of control now. Her lungs were burning, _no, this is like when you drink water after chewing mint gum,_ her lungs were freezing, like the air around her was too cold for her to breathe.

She looked down at her hands, her painted blue nails were covered in black ichor. She tried to wipe it off, only to find her fingers were slowly elongating into talons. Pain shot through her spine and she heard and felt her clothes rip.

_This is worse than any pain I’ve had. Worse than the worst period cramps._

Hunched over from pain, Victoria made it to the doors of the office, only to find that they were locked. She weakly pounded on them, as the pain had extended to her hands now. The new weight on her back threatened to pin her to the ground. She screamed. Her lungs could barely get enough air to make any noise and she was gasping for breath. Her mind flashed back to earlier that day when Sol told her “I use this mask to breathe”.

_Is that what mercury’s mask does as well?_

The pain was so great Victoria could only crawl to where Mercury’s mask was sitting on his desk. Her breathing became labored, and the distance to the desk seemed like an eternity. By the end of the trek she could only barely see what was in front of her. Her fingers dusted the edge of Mercury’s mask and she passed out.

* * *

Victoria came-to and felt gloved hands gripping her forearms.

“Can you stand on your own?” A voice came from the ether around her.

She slowly nodded and shakily stood and braced herself on what was Mercury’s desk.

Victoria looked at her feet and asked nobody “What happened?”

She saw a pair of black dress shoes peak into the edge of her vision. A hot drink, complete with a straw was thrust into her hand.

“You, my dear Victoria, are a ghoul.”

She raised the glass to her mouth, only to have the straw hit something before it got to her lips.

“Good thing I was here eh? You never would have gotten that mask on in time.” The voice suddenly clicked in Victoria’s mind. She heard it singing whenever she was on the way to work, she heard it talking at all the concerts she went to, and she heard that same voice now.

“Emeritus?” Victoria looked up at the owner of the shoes.

“The third if you will,” He seemed to be smiling, “Emeritus was the first CEO.” Without the stage makeup, Emeritus III looked almost like Bela Leugosi. There was a joke going around the forums that he was Leugosi’s illegitimate child.

His mismatched eyes seemed to sparkle, “Just like I thought. You do have some demon blood in you, maybe more than mercury there.” He motioned to the pile of dust near Victoria’s feet.

“I’ve never seen him turn to dust like that!” Emeritus III chortled, “Usually he just flops around and fakes his death, but no one has ever done enough damage to actually make him need to regenerate from scratch. Congratulations!” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Drink up! We need to get you your own mask, as Mercury needs his once he gets out of the pool.”

Victoria glanced at the coffee cup in her hand. “What is this?” she asked as she brought the straw to her mouth, under the ghoul mask. It was surprisingly delicious

“A staple,” Emeritus shrugged, “Goats blood, brimstone, maybe a little bit of antimony and arsenic. Good for a growing demon ghoul like you!” He laughed again.

He walked off and returned with a pile of black fabric. “Here, put this on so we can get you fitted for your mask and suit. It takes a while to weave the magic of the masks, and it seems yours should be more powerful than Mercury’s.”

Emeritus seemed to be in a very jovial mood. “I told you I had no ulterior motive! You being mostly unclothed was not part of the plan, but it was a pleasant sight.” He turned and started walking toward the doors.

Victoria stared daggers at him and put on the robe. “If I had the strength to stand, I would slap that smirk…. Wait, What do you mean stronger?”

Emeritus stopped walking towards the doors and turned to Victoria with a smile. “You don’t know? You haven’t noticed the weight of your wings and tail, or well, lack of it? You still have the talons from your initial transformation. The ghoul masks prevent such qualities from appearing, so you ghouls can go out in public and not scare the general populace. I’ll explain more on the way down. Follow me.”

Victoria nodded, slowly stood, and carefully walked to follow Emeritus III, as she was still feeling a lot of muscle soreness from her transformation. As she passed the threshold of the office, she knew her life was going to get infinitely better.


	2. Ancestry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wonderful walk down the stairs with Papa Emeritus III.

Passing through the door, Victoria noticed that everything seemed different. Looking around while sipping her blood smoothie, everything seemed brighter. The dreary lobby lit up in a multitude of colors. Some she couldn’t describe. They looked like a combination of every color at once, but never turned into the gross muddy brown she used to make with her leftover paints at the end of art class. The secretary was no longer present, that made her a bit confused. Victoria stopped walking to try to process what was going on. Emeritus must have saw her looking around. He turned around and spread his arms wide, as if to present the room to her.

“Impressive, is it not? Some of the ghouls here are the creative type and use their magic accordingly.”

Victoria absentmindedly nodded. “What about the secretary?” She asked, her voice was quiet, still recovering from everything that happened.

“The secretary?” Emeritus furrowed his brows, trying to understand what Victoria was saying. “Oh! You mean Gallia! Don’t worry about her, she disappears sometimes. She probably heard you making a ruckus in Mercury’s office and decided she didn’t want to confront what was in there.”

Emeritus turned on the ball of his foot and motioned for Victoria to continue to follow him. They went to the door on the other side of the desk. Emeritus held it open for Victoria, when she walked by, he quickly shut the door and they were engulfed in darkness.

Maybe a millisecond passed, and Victoria felt her eyes adjust to the new amount of light. She groaned when she saw a set of stairs winding downward.

Walking was very uncomfortable. Victoria’s muscles screamed in protest with every step. A few feet ahead, Papa Emeritus III was almost skipping with happiness. When not in his papal regalia, Emeritus didn’t have the same daunting presence. Even though Victoria had met him and seen him perform countless times, it was difficult to imagine the petite man in front of her, who was now indeed skipping like a schoolgirl, sitting in business meetings at the head of a long table, sitting behind a desk and staring at numbers on a computer screen, or really doing anything business-like. This man was the head of a multinational company, and here he was, humming some random tune, skipping around, and making sure she was following him.

Victoria stepped down each step one at a time, holding on to the railing for dear life for fear her legs would give out and she would tumble down the stairs. A thought occurred to her.

“Did all the ghouls go through this?”

Emeritus glanced at her. “What do you mean?”

Victoria stepped down another step. “You called this a transformation. Do all the ghouls go through this?”

He shrugged, “No. Not all ghouls go through that. The original five didn’t, as they are full blooded demon. They were the ones Emeritus I managed to summon. My older brother tried to summon more, and he succeeded, somewhat. They weren’t as powerful as the original five, so we think he must have gotten the spell wrong. He summoned a lot more than five though, maybe about twenty or so.” Emeritus paused and allowed Victoria to catch up. She stopped one step behind him. He started down the stairs again and the spring in his step was gone.

“That was six years ago,” he continued, “after three years, the board fired my brother, and they approached me to lead the company. I never even attempted the ritual to summon more ghouls, that was my one condition of becoming the head of Ghost B.C. Failing that ritual fucked up my brother in more ways than just losing his hair, you know.” Emeritus ran a gloved hand through his hair, like he was making sure it was still there, and he shook his head as if to ward off bad memories.

“Where was I… Ah the Ghouls! Yes! You know Emeritus I and my brother were both leaders of the band before me yes? I assume you do,” He chuckled, some of his earlier joy coming back, “Well, touring with the band was not the first thing Emeritus I did. He was more of a… businessman than my brother and I. He traveled around the world with the ghouls setting up connections and making business partners. That was probably at least 25 years ago.” Emeritus stopped again and waited for Victoria to catch up. He turned to look at her, “That’s about how old you are right?”

Victoria shrugged, “Give or take a few years.” She paused her descent to take a sip of her drink.

“You knew your father?” He asked immediately.

Victoria quickly swallowed, “No, Mom always said he was a rock star or something. I remember she was really happy when I started listening to Ghost and showed her the official pictures.” Victoria took another sip and started slowly stepping down again. “Ugh, can you please tell me how long this damn staircase is?”

Emeritus laughed, “As long as I want it to be. We Papas have to have some magic too you know.” He winked and sparkles appeared from his fingertips. He started walking again.

“You asked about the transformations, and well, the only ghouls who go through them are only part ghoul.

“Truth be told, there have been ghouls on this earth for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps as long as humans have been around, maybe longer. I haven’t really found a ghoul _that_ old yet to ask them.

“You know, ghouls, just like everybody else, when they see certain people, sometimes their carnal lust just…takes over.” He smirked, “Don’t worry, it’s always consensual. They may be demons, but they aren’t monsters. Besides, that’s the only way their demonic traits can be passed from generation to generation. I don’t know who, but someone put that restriction on them.

“Throughout my years as the head of the company, I’ve gotten really good at figuring out who descended from ghouls. Mercury was one of the first.”

“So why go through all the trouble of inviting me here for a job offer, then making me a murderer?” Victoria asked indignantly.

“Why are you so worked up? I did give you a job after all, you’ll be working for me as one of the ghouls. Mercury isn’t dead, he just has to regenerate his body again, it’ll take a while, but he’ll need that mask back when he does.” Emeritus tapped the mask Victoria was wearing.

She batted his hand away with the back of her own. “I understand that, but what exactly am I going to be _doing_ at this company?”

“We don’t know yet, we’ll figure it out along the way.” He paused a bit to think, “Probably getting tired, aren’t you? Let’s sit down.” Emeritus snapped his fingers, a surprisingly loud snap for wearing gloves, and below them a landing appeared in the stairwell, complete with a couple of lounge chairs, an end table, and more blood smoothies. Victoria, feeling her mouth go dry, immediately grabbed one and started drinking it. She sat down and looked at Emeritus expectantly.

Sitting down, Emeritus grabbed himself a smoothie as well. Crossing his legs, he took a long drink and set the cup down when it was empty.

“Mercury helps me find people like you, people whose ancestors were ghouls.”

Victoria stopped drinking her smoothie, slowly set it down, and narrowed her eyes at Emeritus. “My ancestors were ghouls.” She said skeptically.

Emeritus nodded and added casually, “Judging by how powerful you are, it seems that the ghoul blood is a recent addition to your ancestry. And from what you’ve told me, it seems that one of the original ghouls is your father.”


	3. Carbon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papa 3 finishes the tour and Victoria meets a new ghoul.

Victoria slowly took her cup back into her hand. Her hands were shaking. She tried to find words, but her mouth just opened and closed without any sound coming out. She imagined that without the mask, she looked like some kind demonic fish gasping for air.

Almost unaware of her shock, Emeritus continued. “Problem is, I can’t really figure out which one. What happened when you were changing? Did you feel anything,” Emeritus tapped a finger on the armrest of his chair and tried to think of the right word, “I guess elemental. Usually the new ghouls feel connected to some element during the first transformation.”

“I uh guess so?” Victoria’s voice was shaky, and she took a drink to calm herself. Emeritus gestured for her to continue.

“I mean, it was really painful.” Victoria stared at her hands, the ends of which were still pointed into onyx talons. “The first thing that happened, was my lungs felt like they were freezing with each breath. Then more pain, I guess that was when the wings and tail appeared. And the entire room just seemed way too cold.”

Emeritus nodded, absorbing the information. “Seems standard enough. But usually new ghouls don’t pass out for as long as you did. Usually its only at the most an hour or so, but you were out for,” he rubbed his chin, attempting to calculate the time, “six hours.”

She almost spit out her drink in astonishment and started coughing.

“You should really pace yourself with those, if you have too many you may start to fall asleep and I’ll have to carry you the rest of the way.”

“But this is only my second one.” Victoria refuted.

“We also have a limited supply at the current time and we can’t satisfy _every_ need of _every_ ghoul at once,” he countered with a coy smile, “but back to the topic at hand, did you feel any attachment to any certain element before this, during your childhood or young adult life?”

“Well, I always hated going to the beach. Geology was pretty cool to take in school. I always loved starting the fire in the fireplace and the campfire whenever we would go camping. It was mesmerizing to watch the flames, you know.” Victoria paused, attempting to remember the elements of the original five ghouls.

“Missing air and Aether,” Emeritus was holding up three fingers, to show Victoria that she had only said three elements.

Victoria furrowed her brow, concentrating on how air and aether had affected her life up to this point. “I never liked flying in airplanes, I would do it, but I never really cared for it. Uh Aether… that’s like space, right?”

Emeritus shrugged, “Close enough for now.”

“I never really wanted to go to space or explore the universe. Stars are interesting and all, but I don’t really want to leave earth.”

Emeritus leaned back and steepled his fingers, deep in thought. He stayed like that for several minutes. Victoria reached for another drink and thought _Damn these smoothies are addicting._ Before she took a sip, she stopped, remembering what Emeritus had said, and put it back down.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, Emeritus thinking, and Victoria bouncing her leg in boredom, reflecting over everything that happened.

She finally broke the silence, “Too many things are making sense now.”

Emeritus looked up from his fingers and cocked his head, perplexed, “Explain.”

“During every signing, every front row show I thought I felt like the ghouls were watching me. A lot of places I went, sketchy parking lots, any place I felt even moderately unsafe, I felt like something was there ready to kick the ass of whatever thing I encountered. It was weird to constantly feel like I was being watched, but after a while it felt comforting, like sitting next to a campfire on a cold night with friends and beer.”

He looked back at his fingers, processing this new information, “Hmmm, that does sound like something Fire would do.”

He continued to think for about five more minutes, then suddenly asked, “You rested up? Let’s go then. You have an appointment to meet!” Emeritus practically jumped out of his chair, his curiosity sated for now.  Victoria slowly stood up with a groan, she felt like an old woman.

“Ugh, Fuck. Is everybody this sore afterwards?”

“Only after a night with me.” Emeritus winked, “Keep moving, that’ll help ease the pain.”

They continued down the stairs for a few more minutes in silence. Emeritus suddenly turned on his heel and kicked the wall in front of him. “I think we’ve been walking on these stairs for long enough.”

He quickly stepped up to Victoria, wrapped his hand around her waist and held her tightly. The stairs below them leveled out, and the never-ending spiral staircase around them slowly morphed into a small antechamber.  Victoria’s head started spinning and she had to brace herself against Emeritus to keep from falling over.

“Can you warn me next time you are going to do that?” She demanded, “That’s really disorienting.”

“Hmm? Oh, apologies, I keep forgetting that some aren’t used to that. We are where we need to go, so no more teleportation _for now_.” Emeritus coyly smiled. Victoria did not like the emphasis he put on the words for now.

The room was sparsely decorated, with industrial carpet below and a popcorn ceiling above. The door, however, was as detailed as the room was empty. Carved from a gorgeous black wood, it seemed to dominate the room. Intricately carved into it were scenes of demons flying, a preacher above a large crowd, and all throughout the scenes was the upside-down cross Victoria knew so well.

“Welcome to what some people would call Hell.” Emeritus grinned and opened the door. It whooshed open noiselessly. A wave of hot, humid air washed over Victoria as she stepped through the doorway and looked around. Her eyes stung from the sudden brightness of the cavern. Looking down and shading her eyes so they could adjust, she noticed that they were standing on a boardwalk.

“As we walk to our destination, you’re going to experience some quick fluctuations in temperature, don’t worry, we’re just walking through the steam from the spring.” Victoria heard the thump of the door closing behind them.

Her eyes finally adjusted to the amount of light in the cave. From the height of Mercury’s office, the cavern didn’t seem very large. The cavern was massive, from where Victoria was standing, she couldn’t see the ceiling or the opposite end of it. The cavern was a large oval shape, too large to be a natural formation.

“Done enough looking from here? You’ll see more if you walk around!” Emeritus teased, he was already ten feet in front of her. Victoria shuffled after him, thankful they were finally on flat ground.

Emeritus played the perfect tour guide, pointing out different places in the cavern and explaining what they were for.

“The large pool in the middle is where the ghouls here relax after a day of working, the hot water really does something for sore muscles. The lights you see on the sides of the cave are different workshops. They have stairs going up to them, for the ghouls who don’t want or don’t know how to fly.”

Victoria groaned at the mention of more stairs. Her legs were shaking from exertion, the shuffling helped reduce the intensity, but she didn’t think she could make it up another flight of stairs.

“Directly across the pool from us is dormitories, that’s where you’ll be staying for now.”

“Why? I have a house, which apparently you know where it is, even though I never told you.” Victoria asked.

Without skipping a beat Emeritus responded “It takes a few days to craft the masks properly, we have loaner ones for that time, but some prefer not to wear them. The dormitories are for the ghouls who are waiting on their equipment. It will be kind of difficult for you to go out without the mask. People will think it’s the rapture or the apocalypse and freak out. As if we would let the world end now, just wait a few hundred years.” He finished with a disdainful laugh.

Through the ocean of the new information Victoria was mulling over in her mind, a single mundane thought popped into her head.

“Who’s going to feed Toblerone?!” She exclaimed, suddenly overcome with worry for her chubby tabby cat. “He’s on a diet! I’m the only one who knows how much food he gets!” She stopped walking and put her hands on her head. “He’s probably really lonely, and meowing for food and demanding treats that I shouldn’t give him. He’s probably on the counter sniffing at that damn message circle and meowing like ‘what the heck is this?! This isn’t food!’”

Emeritus looked at her quizzically and put a hand on her wrist and slowly took her hand away from her head. “If you are so worried about it, I can send someone over to your house to feed him for you, you’ll have to give them instructions on what to do, but I’m sure whoever they are, they can manage it.” With his other hand, he patted her shoulder. “We’re almost there.”

“Almost where?”

“To the main workshop, Carbon will help you there, She’s the craftiest ghoul I know. And trust me, I know a lot of ghouls.” Emeritus laughed at his own joke and Victoria managed to crack a small smile.

“Is that a smile? Glad to see you feel well enough to smile!” Emeritus beamed, overjoyed with his small success.

They walked for a few more feet and arrived at a set of stone stairs leading upward to a wooden platform. Victoria audibly groaned. Emeritus worriedly looked at her, but his face lit up with an idea once he figured out what she was complaining about. Emeritus put his pinkies in his mouth and whistled. A small figure peeked from over the railing on the platform and waved.

Emeritus pointed at Victoria with his thumb and said, “She needs some help getting up there, her transformation was particularly taxing, almost a complete one may I add.”

The figure gave a thumbs up and disappeared. A while later it reappeared and pointed for Emeritus and Victoria to head to the other side of the platform. On the other side was a platform attached to a pully system. Always the gentleman, Emeritus indicated to the platform and said with a smile “After you.”

“Age before beauty.” Victoria responded, a sly smile on her face.

Emeritus burst out laughing and stepped on the platform, “If only you knew how old I really was. Let me tell you, it takes _a lot_ of virgins to look this good at my age, you know.” He ran a hand through his hair and smiled. “This is safe I promise.”

Victoria shuffled on to the platform and plonked herself down on the floor. Emeritus called up to the figure that they were ready to go up.

The platform slowly jerked into life. It was very slow going.

“Is every time I take off this mask going to be that painful?” Victoria asked, staring out at nothing.

“It shouldn’t be,” he answered, also staring straight ahead. The pully system slowly creaked as they continued their ascent. “Normally people don’t fully transform in Mercury’s office and we can help them with the initial transformation. I guess you were a special case,” He shrugged, “All the reason why we need to find a job for you, you need a place to use all that demonic energy.

“Eventually we teach you guys how to control that transformation so it’s more manageable. You could even transform only part of you instead of everything. Like if you wanted to fly someplace, Careful with that though, we haven’t found a material that can survive that in one piece.”

A cheery voice piped up from above them. “Oi, ‘Meritus, stop usin yer magic shite to add weight to the platform, its ‘ard enough pullin two of ya up, or is it that ya really need to lay off the Italian food?”

Emeritus stepped one of his feet back, so his stance was more stable, grinned mischievously, and pointed at the platform. The platform jerked upwards a few feet and stopped abruptly. Victoria heard cursing coming from the above. The platform started moving again, faster this time and they were soon level with the large suspended deck.

A small figure was tying up a rope to an anvil cleat, once they were satisfied with their work they stood up, dusted themselves off, and walked over to Victoria and Emeritus.

Emeritus was still grinning as the ghoul marched up to him and pointed a finger in his face. Even though they were much smaller than him, they carried themselves with an air that you did not want to mess with them, as it seemed they could kick your ass three weeks from Sunday.

“Warn me next time! I almost dropped ya! Good thing I know ‘ow to ‘ang on to stuff eh?” Their voice was sharp, piercing, yet somehow it sounded familiar and comforting, like watching rain outside your window while wrapped in a blanket with hot cocoa in your hands.

“Carbon!” Emeritus exclaimed happily, holding the rolled r in her name for a bit longer than necessary, “I knew you wouldn’t drop us!”

“This,” he indicated to Victoria sitting next to him, “Is Victoria. The ghoul I was talking to you yesterday about.”

Victoria weakly waved and managed a smile she hoped was friendly. “Sorry, I can’t get up to greet you, I can barely stand as it is.”

“No problem at all luv! Most new ghouls can barely make it up those stairs. They usually ‘ad to crawl. That’s why I installed that elevator ya rode up on.”

Victoria was amazed, “You built this?”

Carbon seemed like she was smiling under her mask, “’Course, you think ‘Meritus could ‘ave built this?” She started laughing, “’e can sing, but ‘e can’t build ‘imself out of a paper bag even if ‘e tried!”

Victoria couldn’t help but laugh at Emeritus’ expense. She looked up at him, he looked like he was about to present a rebuttal, but suddenly the guitar solo from Cirice started playing.

“That would be my phone, excuse me for a second.” He walked onto the main platform, patting his pockets to find his phone. When he finally found it, he rolled his eyes and answered.

“Emeritus the Third here. Yes, I’m sure it’s me, who else would have my phone?!”

He paused, listening to the voice on the other line.

“Okay, I can’t right now, I’m trying to show a new ghoul the ropes. Yes, I understand it’s important but…”

Carbon and Victoria watched as Emeritus began to pace back and forth.

He laughed nervously, “That’s a bit more than important, Sister, that’s urgent. Understood, I’ll be right over.”

He hung up, tucked the phone into his pocket, and sighed. He turned to Victoria and Carbon. “Apologies Victoria, the tour is going to be cut a bit short, urgent company matters to attend to and all that.” He bowed with a flourish.

“Carbon, can you take over from here?”

She gave a mock salute, “Of course ‘meritus! You can count on me!”

He nodded, took off his jacket and gloves and laid them on the railing of the deck. “Keep these safe for me, will you? It’s really hard to find another jacket like that these days and I really don’t want to go to the trouble of finding a new pair of gloves, I just broke those in.”

He muttered under his breath, “I always hate doing this, it takes forever to find a new comfortable shirt.”

Emeritus stood on the railing and faced the two ghouls near the elevator. “I trust you to take care of this Carbon. Victoria,” Emeritus smiled, but this time it didn’t reach his eyes, “Welcome to the family.”

He leaned back and fell off the balcony. With a shot of adrenaline and fear, Victoria raced over to the edge of the balcony, leaned out, and yelled into the darkness below, “What the fuck Emeritus?!”

Victoria heard the ripping of fabric and a string of curses in various languages, some of this earth, and some not.

Carbon giggled and shouted out, “The swearing kind of ruined the moment ‘meritus!”

Emeritus’ voice called out from below, “It’s the thought that counts!”

Victoria leaned a bit further out over the edge as Emeritus came flying straight up from where he fell. He flew in a wide circle to decelerate and hovered a few feet away from the edge of the deck.

“Don’t lean out too far, you might fall. And I won’t be here to save you this time.” Emeritus winked, patted Victoria on the head, and flew away. A black feather fell off from one of his wings and slowly floated on to the deck. Victoria managed to catch it mid-air. She tried to put in her pants pocket, but she realized her pants were ripped to shreds. She just tightly held on to it and thought _No one is going to fucking believe this._


	4. Measurements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria finally gets measured for her mask!

Victoria’s legs started shaking again, the adrenaline wearing off. Carbon quickly walked over and draped one of Victoria’s arms over her shoulders, supporting her weight with her own.

“Come on luv, we can’t have ya fallin’ down and hittin’ yer ‘ead,” Carbon let Victoria lean on her, so she could at least walk.

“Thank you,” Victoria said, “but I don’t think I can move anymore, I literally have no energy right now.”

Carbon tilted her head, thinking. The light coming from the building in front of them glinted off her black mask with a dull silver sheen. “I ‘ave an idea. ‘ere.”

Without warning, Carbon swept Victoria’s feet out from under her and carried her inside the building.

Carbon plopped Victoria into a plush chair and went off into the workshop.

Victoria looked around. The building was larger than it seemed on the outside as it was carved into the side of the cave. The temperature was quite warm as on one side was a coal-powered furnace, beside it was a large pile of coal. The coal looked quite similar to the mask Carbon was wearing.

The workshop was like a maze of shelving. Various elements and metals filled the shelves from floor to ceiling. Carbon had disappeared behind one of the stacks and she reappeared between another pair with her findings. The view of this small ghoul carrying a very large metal tub on her head made Victoria crack a slight smile.

Victoria nodded towards the tub, “Should I be worried? Is this going to be so bad I’m going to need to use that?”

“No, ya silly! This is for ya to soak in!”

Carbon put the tub underneath a tap in the wall. She twisted the spigot and hot water came streaming out. The smell of sulfur permeated the air. Carbon hummed a tune while the tub was filling, she danced around, collecting various rags and jars and bringing them back to the area around the tub. She squeezed a purple liquid into it and threw some powder in there too.

“What’s that for?” Victoria asked suspiciously.

“It’s bubble bath, also some bath salts fer ya sore muscles. The salts’ll also ‘elp ya relax after that transformation that was so rough on ya.”

“I think that was more than a _little_ rough,” Victoria nervously laughed, “That was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It felt like my spine was snapping in two and I was freezing from the inside out.”

Carbon nodded like she understood, took off her outer jacket and hung it on a hook by the entrance to the workshop. She closed the door, rolled up her sleeves and grabbed a shovel. Her arms were crisscrossed with scars.

Victoria noticed the scars but didn’t ask about them. From past experiences, Victoria knew that people will talk about scars in their own time.

“One second, I need ta make sure ya aren’t gonna ‘ave so much pain this time ‘round.” Carbon shoveled some coal into the furnace and stoked the flames inside higher. The heat inside the room slowly increased as Carbon jogged over to the metal tub and quickly turned off the flow of water.

“Tha’ was a close one! Almost overfilled it!”

The tub _was_ almost filled to the brim, however Victoria couldn’t see the water through the dense mountain of bubbles that threatened to collapse on her.

“Up ya go!” Carbon picked up Victoria again, but this time set her down in the tub, robe and all.

“Jus’ soak there for a minute, also I apologize, but I’m eventually gonna need the robe back. I’ll get ya some proper clothes after I measure ya ‘ead for ya mask!”

Carbon grabbed a folded towel and put it under Victoria’s head. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and started to relax. Victoria jerked to awareness when she remembered Toblerone.

“Carbon?” She sleepily asked.

“Yes luv?”

“Emeritus said he would send someone to my house to feed and play with my cat, as I can’t be there to do it. He has a very specific diet he needs to be kept on cause he’s so fat.”

“’Course luv, I’ll get right on that. What does he eat?” Carbon looked around for a second and grabbed a notebook and pencil.

Victoria started explaining her cat’s diet, and her voice started getting quieter and quieter.

“… and only two pieces of chicken as a treat. Is tha’ it?” Carbon paused, ready to write more if need be.

“That’s it, yeah.” Victoria mumbled as she fell into a deep sleep.

Carbon smiled under her mask. _Such a young’n, hopefully she’ll fit right in._

She pulled a phone out of her pocket and dialed a number.

“Yeah, Gallia? Its Carbon. Can you pop over for a moment? I need you to do something real quick.”

A few minutes later there was a soft knock on the door. Carbon opened the door and a woman with bright red lipstick and short curly hair stepped in and wrapped Carbon in a large hug.

“It’s been too long bon bon!” She squealed with excitement.

Carbon returned the hug and she held Gallia at arm’s length. “’ush Gallia. Victoria’s sleepin over there.”

“Whoops!” she continued in a whisper, “What do you need me to do, Carbon?”

Carbon tore out the page of the notebook and handed it to Gallia, “Victoria’s cat gets lonely without ‘er. Can ya go over to ‘er ‘ouse and feed ‘im? ‘Is name’s Toblerone, you can’t miss ‘im, ‘e’s a fat one.”

Gallia quietly giggled, “Of course I can! I love fat cats! I’ll take pictures for her to make sure he’s okay. Have fun working!” She left the workshop and took a running start to dive off the balcony. Gallia made one circle around the building, waving to Carbon, and flew off to the entrance of the cave.

Carbon waited until Gallia was out of sight and closed the door. She nodded, satisfied with her work so far. _Now tha’ Victoria’s comfortable, and ‘er cat’s taken care of, it’s time for me to start that project ‘Meritus wanted._

She locked the door. Carbon took off her clothes and folded them neatly on a table below the hook her jacket was hanging on. The last thing she removed was her mask, and she hung it on a hook next to her jacket. She breathed deeply several times, feeling the release of the mask’s magic.

She turned around and walked to her workspace. Carbon grew taller, tightly curled horns appeared at her temples, her teeth elongated into fangs, her fingers and feet morphed into pointed claws, a pair of small, ragged, and damaged wings grew from her back, and a tail grew from the base of her spine. Three-quarters of her tail was missing.

These scars didn’t hurt anymore and the people who gave them were long since dead. Whether by her hand or not, it didn’t matter, their names and deeds were lost to history. Carbon couldn’t look at those massive stone cathedrals as art anymore. Whenever she did, Carbon only felt the brands and heard the cruel laughter of those who had hurt her. She had noticed Victoria looking at her scars and the concern that swirled through Mercury’s mask.

All the new ghouls saw the scars, and they usually asked what happened, but Carbon was surprised that Victoria didn’t ask. Carbon had been preparing a response from when she saw Victoria from high above, hunched like an old woman and barely able to stand. 

Carbon’s heart broke for Victoria. In the days after her initial transformation, Carbon remembered being hunted through dense forest and just running until her body wouldn’t respond anymore.

A hot tear ran down Carbon’s face. She shook her head to chase away the memories, _That’s why you decided to work for ‘Meritus in the first place. So that wouldn’t ‘appen to any other ghouls. Let’s get working._

Carbon rolled her neck and stretched her arms above her head. She grabbed a half-sewed shirt and started weaving her magic.

 

* * *

 

A few hours later Victoria woke up. It took her a few moments to orient herself with her unfamiliar surroundings.

Hearing Victoria stirring, Carbon quickly put away her work, and put on her mask. She slowly shrank back into her preferred human form. Once she had become fully human, Carbon quickly got dressed.

Still groggy, Victoria asked herself, “Where am I?”

A somewhat familiar voice pierced through her grogginess, “Luv, yer in my workshop! You jus’ ‘ad a nice soak in the springwater to soothe yer muscles! Are ya feelin any better?”

Victoria snapped back to reality and she quickly took stock of everything that had happened from when she woke up that morning. One thought took prevalence above everything.

“Toblerone! Is he okay? Did he get fed and everything?” she asked, overwhelmed with concern for her cat.

Carbon giggled. “’Course luv! Soon after ya fell asleep, I sent someone out ta play with ‘im and feed ‘im. I gave ‘em yer instructions to the T!”

Victoria visibly relaxed. “Thank the powers that be! I was so worried about him.”

“How are ya feelin, luv?”

Victoria moved her arms and sat up in the tub, to her surprise, she wasn’t sore anymore. “Much better, still not at one-hundred percent, but much better than before.”

“That’s good enough for me! Let’s get ya out of that tub so I can measure ya.”

Victoria looked apprehensive but stood up in the tub and grabbed the towel that Carbon offered her.

“I’m going to have to take off this mask, aren’t I. Is it going to be as painful as last time?”

“Shouldn’t be. Normally ‘Meritus is here with ‘is magic to ‘elp me with suppressin yer magic while I measure, but seein’ as ‘es not ‘ere, I asked Sol to ‘elp if that’s alright with ya.

“Dun worry, I told ‘im ‘e ‘ad to sit facing the corner.” Carbon’s eyes closed like she was smiling.

Indeed, Sol was sitting by the pile of coal near the furnace. The chair he was sitting on was facing the wall, but he was sitting backwards on the chair, his head propped up by his hand, almost as if he was bored.

Carbon put her hands on her hips indignantly, “Sol! What did I just get through tellin Victoria?”

“I just wanted to greet her face to face, now that she knows what we are.” Sol stood up and walked to Victoria, who was standing up and had one foot out of the tub. Victoria started to slip and fall backwards and both Sol and Carbon practically teleported to her side to catch her, one arm each. Once Victoria was safely out of the tub, Sol stepped back and bowed to her.

Victoria was quite startled by the ghoul in front of her. Sol did not have his mask on, and from their brief encounter, Victoria didn’t expect a Chinese man with short-cropped black hair to be under the ghoul mask. She really didn’t expect a human face at all really. The only thing that showed that Sol wasn’t human was his eyes. They looked like someone plucked Rigel out of Orion’s constellation and put them in a human face.

“Greetings Victoria, and welcome to the family,” Sol straightened and smiled, “I apologize for my rude behavior on our first meeting. I was given explicit instructions to annoy you as much as possible to help speed along your transformation.”

“Apology accepted?” Victoria was a bit confused, “I don’t understand, you guys were _trying_ to get me to snap?”

“It’s difficult to explain, but the short answer is yes. Usually the demonic side of a half ghoul is suppressed by societal norms and is a very primal force. When people get enraged, their basest instincts take over, for you half ghouls that’s the demonic side.” Sol began to explain, his arms folded behind his back.

Victoria nodded and was about to ask how they figured out she was half-ghoul, but Carbon shooed Sol away and said “Ya can explain later. Go sit in yer corner, Victoria is soppin wet and she needs a proper mask. Ya know Merc’s gonna be annoyed about the fit of ‘is mask if she wears it for any longer.”

Sol rolled his eyes, “I understand Mercury isn’t going to like that someone else was wearing his mask, but it’s important to understand the reasoning behind Emeritus’ decision…”

Carbon cut him off, “Sol, please.”

Sol sighed and begrudgingly walked back to the chair in the corner, and sat, facing the wall, with his arms crossed, like he was pouting. “Ready when you are.”

Carbon nodded and looked at Victoria, “I’ll explain what we’re gonna do. So, I’m gonna take off that mask yer wearin’ and Sol is gonna help me prevent you from turning into a full demon, so I can get yer measurements for yer new mask and suit!”

They walked over to a cleared space in front of the furnace. Even though the furnace was blazing hot, Victoria didn’t feel sweaty or overheated.

“Stand ‘ere luv.” Carbon indicated a small square made of tape on the floor, “We need to get ya out of those wet clothes.”

Carbon quickly undid the robe Victoria was wearing and threw it off to one side. It landed with a loud shlop. Victoria was now wearing the tattered remains of her once-fancy business attire and sighed. “This was actually really expensive you know.”

“I don’t think ya can wear that business attire anymore luv. I can get rid of it for ya.”

“I think that would be a wise decision.” A voice from the corner grumbled.

“Wow Victoria, yer voice got really deep all of a sudden!” Carbon said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Quiet Sol, I asked ‘er, not you,” Carbon snapped and turned to Victoria, “It all depends on what ya want luv.”

Victoria chuckled, “I think I agree with both of you, this outfit isn’t salvageable anymore.”

Carbon nodded, grabbed a pair of fabric shears from a table next to her, and carefully cut the remains of Victoria’s suit off.

 “Okay Sol, I’m takin the mask off, be ready. ‘Meritus said she had pretty much fully transformed in Merc’s Office, so she’s a strong one.”

Sol gave Carbon a thumbs up and rested his head on the back of the chair, arms crossed again.

Victoria gradually felt a weight squeeze her body, like she was being vacuum sealed inside a human form.

“Are ya ready?” Carbon’s eyes locked with Victoria’s. Carbon’s eyes looked as if you had taken a coal from the bottom of a campfire and put it in the holes of her mask, Comforting yet dangerous at the same time.

Victoria took a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart. “Yes.”

Carbon stood in front of Victoria and reached up to pull off the mask. To Victoria it felt like taking off a heavily padded racing helmet after a day of go-karting. Once the mask was fully off, Victoria braced herself for the back-breaking pain that happened last time she transformed. This time it was only a dull throb and a pinch on her back as wings started to appear.

“Sol, she’s still transforming.” Carbon announced as she hurriedly measured Victoria’s head.

“I can feel that.” Sol’s strained voice responded. The pressure around her body increased. It now felt like a very tight hug that almost squeezed the air out of her lungs, which, to Victoria’s surprise, didn’t feel like they were freezing.

The dull ache in Victoria’s spine slowly retreated as her transformation slowed to an almost halt.

Carbon took a few more measurements and disappeared behind the shelves again. “Keep ‘er there Sol! I’ll add my magic so it’s easier on ya.”

Victoria felt the pressure lessen on her body and felt a second pressure. Now it was like she was wrapped in a tight group hug.

Carbon soon returned with a mask in her hand and held it up. The mask looked exactly like the ones the ghouls wore onstage, except for a black crack running along the length of the chin.

“Yer temporary mask.”

She spoke in a short burst, as she was concentrating on keeping Victoria wrapped in magic.

“Should work.”

Carbon walked over to Victoria with measured movements, to expend as little energy as possible.

Carbon reached up and slowly put the mask on Victoria’s head. The feeling of wearing a racing helmet slowly returned. This mask smelled faintly of flint, matches, and woodsmoke.

“Done.” Carbon said.

The feeling of being squeezed slowly retreated, and Victoria looked at where Sol was sitting in the corner. He was no longer sitting in the same relaxed position as when they started. He was leaning forward and breathing heavily.

“You weren’t kidding when you said she was powerful,” he managed in between breaths. He sounded as if he had just run a 10k marathon.

Carbon was also breathing heavily. “Luv, I think I got ya measurements. Let me grab ya some clothes to put on.”

Carbon walked over to one of the many mannequins in her workshop and grabbed a simple black button-up shirt and a pair of black pants. “Underwear and shoes are in the back. Just walk past the shelves and you’ll see a dresser organized by size.”

Victoria gladly took the clothes and started to make her way to the back of the workshop, but she first turned to Sol and said, “Thank you.”

Once Victoria was out of earshot, Carbon walked over to Sol and helped him stand.

“Are ye okay? You need a smoothie?”

He nodded and looked at his hands. They were half transformed into bone white demonic claws. “She really is a powerful one. I can see why Emeritus offered her a job personally.”

Carbon walked over to the tub, still partly filled with water, and moved it slightly over so she could open the minifridge next to it. She grabbed a smoothie, returned to Sol, and gave it to him. He downed it in half a minute and returned the empty cup.

“I guess I should get going, you know ghouls can’t teach themselves.” Sol chuckled.

“Thanks fer comin on such a short notice.”

Sol warmly smiled. He hugged Carbon and kissed her on the forehead of her mask. “Anything for my daughter.”

Carbon returned the hug and walked him to the door, “Thanks again dad.”

Sol smiled and waved goodbye as he turned to walk down the stone stairs. “It was good to see you, even if you were working.”

Carbon softly laughed and waved back, “Ya know I never stop workin! But at least ya always know where ta find me if ya wanna talk.”

When she couldn’t see Sol anymore Carbon closed the door. She walked to the back of the workshop and cheerily asked, “So, Victoria, what’s yer favorite element?”

 


	5. Masks and Dormitories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria's mask is finally in progress, and she meets a somewhat familiar face!

When she couldn’t see Sol anymore Carbon closed the door. She walked to the back of the workshop and cheerily asked, “So, Victoria, what’s yer favorite element?”

Victoria was finishing up the top buttons and paused. “No one has really asked me that before. Also, the clothes are a bit big.”

Indeed, the shirt was a bit loose, the shoulders were too wide, and her pants were a bit too wide around the waist.

“I can fix that for ya real quick!” Carbon left and grabbed some sewing supplies. She tucked some pins and sewing needles in her breast pocket and grabbed some black thread.

“For now, all I can do is sew up the back of the pants and the shirt, so it at least fits.” Carbon motioned for Victoria to turn around.

“Back to my question. Yer favorite element? It’s for yer mask. I can make it out of any element or mineral ya want.” Carbon casually asked as she continued to fix Victoria’s clothes.

“Are there any restrictions?” Victoria asked, “Because I doubt you could make a viable mask out of ununquadium, or whatever it’s called now.”

“Yer right Victoria, Flerovium is too unstable and radioactive for me to even think of makin’ a mask out of it. I do have other rules as well. No highly radioactive elements or minerals, No asbestos, No Actinide Series,” Carbon began to sew the waistband of Victoria’s pants as she recited the list, “No noble gasses, or gasses in general, It’s difficult to make those into a solid shape at a comfortable temperature fer us. Also preferably one with a metallic luster, Just fer the aesthetic ya know?”

Victoria laughed, “So really not _any_ element or mineral.”

Carbon shrugged, “I could probably make it out of any one, cept those really unstable ones, those are just the ones I prefer ta work with. Okay!” Carbon stood up and patted Victoria on the shoulder, “All done! Oh ‘nother thing, no pure Iron. That just screws with everybody here.”

Victoria thought for a minute, “Well, I do like the look of just the silver ghoul masks.”

“Ah! So yer a fan of my classic works?”

“You made the stage ghoul masks?” Victoria said in disbelief.

“Nah, I make _all_ the ghoul masks.” Carbon corrected.

“ _All_ the masks?” Victoria was floored, “How many ghouls are there? I assume more than just the,” she took a few seconds to tally the numbers she’d heard earlier that day, “twenty-nine I’ve heard of.”

“I didn’t make ‘em all at once!” Carbon chuckled, “The original Ghouls were powerful enough that they didn’t need masks. They decided to use them when they formed the band for whatever reason. But I didn’t make those. Actually, Papa II was the one who found and approached me to make ‘is ghoul masks. By that time, I ‘ad already perfected making them for myself, but I ‘ad never tried to make one for another ghoul!

“The first masks I made way back when were made of graphite, ya know, pure carbon. It was cheap to get lump carbon. But when I really started perfectin ‘em was back durin the ‘Industrial Revolution’ as yer ‘istory books call it. That’s when I started makin ‘em out of coal.”

“The Industrial Revolution?” Victoria’s eyes widened, “That would make you at least three-hundred years old!”

Carbon laughed, “I’m looking good for my age, wouldn’t ya say?”

“Definitely!” Victoria laughed with her.

Carbon clapped her hands together, “So, the silver ghoul mask is what ya like? Follow me!”

Carbon went between some shelves with Victoria in tow and started explaining, “The masks now use a base of Iridium, as that stuff resists anything ya throw at it. But since iridium is so dense, I have ta mix in some aluminium to lighten it. Once that mask is cast, I can get to work customizing it. The original mask is what ‘as the supressin magic on it. The loaner mask yer wearin is just the base mask, no customization. I made that one when we ‘ad no idea ‘ow powerful the other half-ghouls would be.

“Papa III helped make that one before ‘e started tourin. I think that one was used on stage, field testin it, you know. Fire I think was the one who offered ta wear it.” Carbon smiled at the memory, “’e really tried to test the limits of the magic, succeeded in breaking it too. That’s where that crack in the chin comes from.”

They walked through an archway and the small wooden building opened up into a cave.

The storage area was gigantic, shelves everywhere, as far as the eye could see. The room was surprisingly well-lit for being this deep in a cave.

“How is it so bright in here? Aren’t we over sixty-thousand feet under the surface?”

“We may be demons luv, but we aren’t in the stone age. We use electricity like everyone else on earth. How do you think we get cell signal down ‘ere?” Carbon laughed.

“But this space is so big, how do you remember where everything is?”

“Practice luv, practice and well, I’m the one who put all this ‘ere.”

Carbon thought for a moment and then charged off between some shelves. Victoria had to jog to keep up. The shelves they passed were full of chunks of different materials. Some were suspended in bottles of liquid, others seemed like they were just empty jars with faint color in them.

“Come on Victoria! Don’t get lost in ‘ere!” Carbon giggled and grabbed Victoria’s wrist and pulled her along, “The silvery metals are comin’ up!”

The shelf that Carbon stopped in front of was a trove of silver colored metals, under each chunk was a label.

“So, ya like things more sparkly or more solid? Or somethin that appears silver, but sparkles a different color? Ya know, I think I’ll jus’ let ya look fer yerself!”

Carbon stepped aside, her eyes followed Victoria’s every movement. Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

Victoria stepped closer to the shelf so she could get a better view of the metals. She carefully scanned the shelves and one immediately caught her eye. She picked it up for a closer inspection, it looked metallic, but the shape of the crystals is what stood out to her. They looked like square step pyramids overlapping with each other. Victoria looked at the label, curious as to what it was. The label read ‘Bismuth, unoxidized’.

“Carbon?” Victoria asked.

“Yes?” Carbon responded, overwhelmed with excitement at the prospect of making a new mask, “I could probably make the rainbow oxidation on the mask, if that’s what yer thinkin. Just make it overall silver, but when it catches the light jus’ right it has a rainbow sheen to it.”

“Ooh! That’s a great idea carbon, I was just going to ask you to use the pattern of the crystals, but can you do both?”

“I can do that for sure! ‘old on to that for now okay?” Carbon looked around and grabbed a few more chunks of metal. “All right! Time for me to get to work!”

Carbon started skipping back down the way they came with Victoria jogging to keep up.

Back in the main workroom, Carbon dumped all the metals in her arms on a table. She then picked up something near the plush chair she initially deposited Victoria in.

 “’ere Victoria, I saw ya ‘anging on to this. Keep it safe okay?” Carbon grabbed Victoria’s hand, pressed the feather from Emeritus’ wing into it, and closed Victoria’s hand. Carbon patted Victoria’s closed hand and winked. Victoria tucked it into her breast pocket.

“Thanks Carbon,” Victoria smiled and patted her pocket, “I almost forgot about that.”

“Before I start on this, lemme call someone up to ‘elp ya around the place.”

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

“Can ya get that Victoria? I’m tryin ta figure out the logistics of bismuth and it can’t really be interrupted.”

Victoria nodded and opened the door.

“Hello?”

Standing in the doorway was a woman with short, curly, brown hair and a smile plastered on her face. She was wearing bright red lipstick and her grey eyes sparkled with excitement

“Hello Victoria!” She said, her smile growing wider, “I don’t think we formally met! I’m Gallia!” Gallia held out her hand, the silver bangles on her wrists jingled as her arm moved.

Victoria took it hesitantly and shook it. “Hi Gallia. Are you the one Carbon called?”

“She sure is!” Carbon called from her workshop, “Gallia knows the way ta the dormitory, She can show ya where ta go.”

Gallia laughed and asked, “Are you ready to go?”

Victoria chuckled, “I guess as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Sounds like a yes!” Gallia grabbed Victoria’s wrist and practically dragged her out of the workshop.

“Bye bon bon! I’ll see you later!” Gallia called, as Victoria stumbled along behind her.

Gallia shut the door and promptly led Victoria back to the main boardwalk around the sulfur lake.

“We’re going over to the dormitories, as you probably know. You know where they generally are?” Gallia let go of Victoria’s wrist as they descended the stairs leading from Carbon’s workshop.

Victoria waved her hand in the general direction of the opposite side of the lake. “Emeritus said it was over there someplace.”

“He wasn’t wrong, but we do have a way to walk,” Gallia smiled, trying to keep the mood light, “I’m sure you are bursting with questions, I can help answer what I can.”

Gallia started cheerily walking along the boardwalk.

“So, uh, Gallia?” Victoria asked as she kept pace, “What exactly do you guys do here?”

“Are you talking about Square Hammer? Or Ghost B.C. in general?”

“Both I guess.”

“Well,” Gallia stopped talking for a bit to gather her thoughts, “Ghost B.C, is, if you didn’t know already, a media powerhouse. We not only have the band, we have influences with television, movies, magazines et cetera. What the Square Hammer branch does is make the physical merch.”

“The physical merch?”

“Yeah, you know, the T-shirts, the costume masks, the posters, the pins, the physical CDs, and the Vinyl records.”

“That’s what all the different buildings are for?”

Gallia nodded.

They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"This sounds like a silly question, but do ghouls get mask hair?" Victoria asked.

Gallia pursed her lips in thought. "What do you mean by mask hair?"

"You know, like hat hair from wearing baseball caps, or helmet hair from wearing a racing helmet?"

Gallia laughed and adjusted one of the many silver pins in her hair, "I've heard some others complain about it. But it never really happens to me."

* * *

 

“Here we are!” Gallia announced. The building they stopped in front of was just a simple wooden building built into the side of the cave.

Gallia opened the door. They could hear the constant rhythm of a dull thunk.

“This is where you’ll be staying while ‘bon makes your mask.” Gallia said with a smile.

Victoria expected the dormitories to be like military barracks or those horrible college dorms that have one bathroom to a floor. She didn’t expect the cushy common room that they walked into. The floor was hardwood, and the walls were simply painted a cream color. On some sections of the walls were paintings of flowers, mountains, and animals. They were painted in the same colors designs as the lobby in front of Mercury’s office.

The room was quite large. On one side was a full-sized kitchen, complete with an island, with a black stainless-steel fridge and black countertops. On the opposite side of the room was a large TV mounted on the wall. Multiple couches were arranged in a circle around it.

A ghoul was lounging on one of the couches. Their leg was hanging off the edge of the couch and one of their arms was behind their head. The dull thunking noise was coming from them throwing a knife at the ceiling and watching it stick. After the knife would stay in the ceiling for a second, it would pop back into their hand and the cycle would start again. The ceiling above them was full of knife cuts like they’ve been doing this for a while. When Gallia and Victoria walked in, the ghoul stopped what they were doing and sat up.

He wasn’t wearing a mask. His head was shaved except for a shock of blonde hair at the top of his head. It ended in a small ponytail. It took him a few seconds to register who just walked in the door. He laid back down on the couch and continued throwing the knife at the ceiling.

“Hey Gallia, I don’t recognize the ghoul next to you though, but hello to you too.” He sounded bored.

Gallia’s face lit up, “Merc! I didn’t realize you would be regenerated this soon!”

Mercury shrugged, “I’m getting better at it, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to regen from scratch.”

Gallia giggled, “It’s a good thing to get better at!”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed, and she crossed her arms. “I can’t _believe_ you don’t recognize me,” she said, her voice dripping with malice and sarcasm, “I think the last time we met, I stabbed you.”

Mercury sat up again and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh right! I don’t know how I could have forgotten about that. It’s hard to tell who it is when people have the default mask on.”

He stood up and smiled, “I believe you left this in my office.” Mercury quickly drew his arm back and threw the knife at Victoria.

Victoria tried to dodge with a loud “What the fuck,” but Gallia casually caught the knife when it passed by her head.

“Merc,” Gallia said in warning, “Victoria’s had a tough day, the last thing she needs is a knife thrown at her face.” She calmly folded the knife and handed it to Victoria. This knife was the one she had brought to the interview.

“Oh shit!” Victoria exclaimed, “My purse, It’s still in Mercury’s office!”

Mercury waved his hand in dismissal, “Nah, I got your stuff when I regenned. Its on the kitchen counter over there. You have a bunch of texts from your mom by the way.”

“Thank you,” Victoria said suspiciously, unsure whether or not to trust him.

She tucked her knife in her back pocket and went to find her purse. Lo and behold, there was her phone along with the other contents of her purse, but no purse.

“Where is my purse?” She asked and glanced at her phone, “And why is my phone disabled for another three hours?”

“What do you mean? Your purse should be over there.” Mercury said, walking over to join Victoria and pointedly ignoring the second part of her question.

He made a show of looking around the kitchen, and finally reached his hand in the trashcan. “Here it is!” He exclaimed in mock surprise. The thing he pulled out looked vaguely like Victoria’s purse, except it was torn to shreds.

Victoria narrowed her eyes and looked from Mercury to the tattered remains of her purse and back to Mercury.

“How did it get like that?”

Mercury shrugged, “It was like that when I found it. I guess you must have done something after you dusted me.

“Now that that’s out of the way, I don’t think we’ve properly met,” Mercury dropped the mangled purse back in the trashcan and held out his hand, “Name’s Benjamin, Half-Ghoul, shapeshifter, and part-time actor, people call me Mercury around here, or Merc if you don’t want to say the full name.”

Victoria didn’t take his hand, “Understood Ben. You seem a lot shorter here than in your office.”

“Like I said, I can shapeshift. There are no rules against shapeshifting into different versions of yourself.” Mercury nervously laughed and retracted his hand.

Victoria crossed her arms and glared at him. “You the one who tried to go through my phone?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then who did? The only other person in that room was Emeritus, and I don’t think he wo…” Victoria’s sentence trailed off. “You’re just trying to make me place the blame on him, aren’t you?”

Mercury shook his head, “No, I wasn’t corporeal when you were passed out, so I couldn’t go through it. Emeritus might have seen something on your phone that interested him, so he would be the one to do it.”

“I’ve been out for a while,” Victoria countered, “What was stopping you from trying to go through my phone after then?”

“Nothing really, but I didn’t…”

“I thought you had already read my résumé.” Victoria interrupted, “So in essence, you already knew enough about me. So there was never any need to go through my phone. I do know, however, you were acting like an asshole on Emeritus’ orders, but that still doesn’t excuse you from trying to look through my phone.”

Mercury held up his hands to defend himself from Victoria’s barrage of questions. “I just told you, it was Emeritus that disabled your phone. I didn’t know anything about you except for your name, I was just told to make you angry.”

Gallia spoke up, trying to keep the peace, “Victoria, let’s just ask Emeritus when he gets back okay? I still need to show you your room.”

Victoria put her useless phone in her other pocket and gestured “I’m watching you” to Mercury.

“So, Gallia, where is my room?” She asked, without breaking eye contact with Mercury.

“Over here! Follow me!” Gallia smiled, happy she prevented Mercury from sustained verbal assault.

Gallia grabbed Victoria’s wrist and motioned with her head to start walking. Victoria scooped up the remaining contents of her purse and followed Gallia.

They stopped at a plain white door with two bronze plaques on it. One read “Gallia”, and the other read “Victoria”.

“I didn’t want to tell you before, but we’re roommates! Isn’t that the berries!?”

Victoria looked perplexed, “The berries? I haven’t really heard that before.”

“Is that not what people are saying now?” Gallia fished through her pockets for a key and giggled, “I guess it is true. Ghouls _are_ forever influenced by when and where they arrive.”

Gallia struggled with the lock for a few seconds. “Ugh, stupid lock.” She mumbled to herself. She thought for a second, pulled the door towards her, and finally unlocked it.

The room was spacious for two people, there were two beds, two dressers, a closet and two desks. Half of the room was decorated with posters, a calendar, and paintings of a cityscape at night. Victoria noticed that a photograph was of Mercury was taped to the wall with a red heart drawn on it in marker, but she decided not to comment.

“The other desk and bed are yours,” Gallia opened a drawer on her dresser and took out some pots of various colored paints. “I didn’t really know what you liked when I first heard you were going to share the room with me. So, I didn’t paint your side of the room. What would you like on the walls?”

“Uh, I like purple, you could make the walls that color.”

Gallia giggled again, “These are magic paints Victoria! I can paint anything you want! A field of flowers that blows in the wind, or a rainbow spattering of colors, or even a cityscape sparkling at night!”

Victoria deposited the contents of her purse on top of her dresser, hopped up on her bed and looked at the cityscape Gallia painted on her side of the room. It looked like an art deco city with a field of stars above it. The stars twinkled on the ceiling.

“Can you paint the feeling of staying up late by a campfire, surrounded by the heat while it slowly gets cold around you, talking and laughing with friends, and the dying fire is casting your shadows on the trees around you?”

Gallia finished getting out her paints and walked around the room, looking around the blank walls and mumbling incoherently to herself. After a few minutes, she nodded. “Yes. I can do that!”

Victoria smiled, and nodded. “Thanks Gallia.”

Victoria suddenly felt very lightheaded and the room swam around her. She put a hand to her head and gripped the mattress she was sitting on for stability. “Gallia, what time is it?”

Gallia looked up from her musings and took out her phone to check. “Its about 2AM, why do you ask?”

“I uh, haven’t had anything to eat since this morning. Can I still eat normal food? Or do I have to subsist on the souls of the damned or something like that.”

Gallia’s face lit up, “That’s what the kitchen is for! Let me cook something for you! You can just rest on the couches!”

“So I _can_ just eat normal food?”

“Yes! Though now, you can also eat pure sulfur and other hellish minerals! I don’t know why we can or why you would, as it tastes horrible, but there you go!”

Gallia took Victoria’s hand again and led her back to the common room.

“Go sit on the couches, I’ll go whip up some pancakes and noodle juice for you! Hey Merc,” Gallia called, “You want some?”

Mercury was lounging on the same couch as before. He lifted his head up and said with a smile, “Sure Gallia, as long as there’s peanut butter chips in them.”

“You know there will be!” Gallia winked and pranced into the kitchen, she quickly returned with a tray. On it was a large teapot, a couple of mugs (one with a straw), and a large box of teabags.

“To hold you over until the pancakes are ready,” she said with a smile, “I’ll make your pancakes plain for now, if that’s alright Victoria.”

Victoria nodded, and poured herself a mug of hot water. Gallia returned to the kitchen and soon the sound of her singing jazz reached Victoria and Mercury.

“So, Victoria,” Mercury sat up and poured his own mug of water, “Where’s my mask?”

Victoria calmly chose a teabag, dunked it in her mug and responded, “It’s in Carbon’s workshop, she said she was going to touch it up or something.”

Mercury squinted at Victoria as he connected the dots in his mind.

“Damn it!” Mercury slammed the mug down on the small table, hot water spilled out of the mug and onto his hands, he quickly shook off his hands with another curse.

“It’ll take forever to re-form that to my face. Ugh, you probably got cooties on it or something.”

Victoria paused, trying to comprehend what he just said, and looked at him in disbelief. “Did you really just say cooties? What are you, 10?” she scoffed.

“Depends on who you ask,” he responded, glaring daggers at Victoria.

“Well, I’m asking you.”

Mercury continued to glare at Victoria as he gathered his thoughts.

“Why would you even put on my mask? Wouldn’t it occur to you, _oh hey, that’s someone’s mask I probably shouldn’t take it_.”

“It was Emeritus who put your mask on my face, I was too busy writhing on the ground in pain and being passed out to do that.” Victoria said and took a sip of her tea.

Mercury opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it and took a sip of his mug of tea. He tried to think of a retort, then crossed his arms and started pouting. Victoria burst out laughing.

“Pancakes are done!” Gallia sang. She twirled into the circle of couches with a huge smile and two plates piled high with pancakes.

Victoria just couldn’t stop laughing. She couldn’t even begin to believe that the man in front of her was pouting like a small child whose allowance was taken away.

“Here you go! Pancakes for everyone!” Gallia beamed and sat herself down next to Mercury. She gave Victoria the larger of the two stacks and helped herself to some of Mercury’s pancakes.

“Dig in guys!”


End file.
